Behind our story about medical errors, and resources to help prevent them

Bob and Barb Malizzo, along with daughter Kristina Chavez and her son Adrian, visit their daughter Michelle Ballog's grave at Graceland Cemetery in Valparaiso, Ind. She died after a medical error was made during surgery. (Heather Charles/Chicago Tribune)

But in the meticulous world of medicine, making a mistake can be especially serious – potentially fatal. A medical error resulting in death is probably every patient's and health professional’s worst nightmare.

So it was a unique experience to be able to report Friday’s front page story on medical errors. It was a rare time when both a family and medical center officials were willing to be interviewed about a death caused by a preventable error.

If you haven’t already read the story, it starts off by describing what happened three years ago to Michelle Malizzo Ballog in the operating room at the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago. She stopped breathing and suffered a cardiac arrest during surgery as a result of an error in monitoring her anesthesia, among other mistakes. She was 39.

I met her parents Bob and Barbara Malizzo and her only sibling Kristina Chavez at a patient safety summit in Chicago where they tearfully told their story to health care professionals, patient safety advocates and others. It was only the second time that they had spoken publicly about what happened and you could hear a pin drop as they described the horror of learning about the harm done to Michelle and that it could have been prevented.

The audience of 300, some of whom cried along with them, gave them a standing ovation when they finished.

If their story wasn’t riveting enough, the hospital’s response to the errors also was compelling. Officials didn’t hide the facts or try to escape blame. They shared the grim details, apologized and quickly offered a settlement to provide for Ballog’s two daughters, who were 1 and 7 at the time.

Even more surprising, the family didn’t sue and joined the hospital’s safety review committee. It didn’t happen overnight, but Bob Malizzo says he has forgiven the hospital and he goes back to UIC medical center regularly for treatment of a heart condition.Medical center officials, meanwhile, have taken the lead in trying to eliminate medical errors in hospitals nationwide.

That’s not to say the story is completely rosy. Medical errors are complex and difficult to eliminate. A number of health professionals at the patient safety summit told me that they had loved ones who died or were harmed by a medical error.But patients and their families can take actions to minimize the chance that something will go wrong.

Experts say patients have to be assertive in looking out for themselves.

They can start by asking questions, becoming knowledgeable and making sure they enlist someone who can serve as their advocate at medical appointments and during hospitalizations. Some patients might even want to pursue opportunities to work on hospital patient safety committees.

None of this has to be adversarial. Think of yourselves as being part of the medical team.And if you’d like more information about medical errors and patient safety, here’s a list of places to go online: